


To Choose June

by Tavina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/pseuds/Tavina
Summary: I know that I have died before —once in November, once in June.
Relationships: Regulus Black & Hermione Granger
Comments: 5
Kudos: 73
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2020





	To Choose June

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muggle95](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muggle95/gifts).



“I know that I have died before —

once in November, once in June.

How strange to choose June again.”

— Anne Sexton, _The Complete Poems, (1999)_

* * *

On a brisk November day, after Hogwarts had fallen, and the sun was brightly shining, Hermione Granger decided that enough is enough.

She was going to _erase_ enough.

Professor Mcgonnall should’ve known better than to tell her about time turners.

* * *

_She is falling._

_Falling._

_Falling._

* * *

Time goes backwards.

The river parts and then reverts.

* * *

Hermione Granger was born on September 19th, 1979, on a weekday in the early morning, because she was not a convenient child. Her parents had mentioned this to her with laughter when she was much younger, though that had taken on a note of ruefulness as soon as she had started school and started asking “why” about everything.

It had only abated by the time she got into her third year at Hogwarts, and things hadn’t seemed _that_ dire.

She was now rather quite a bit closer to September 19th, 1979, if the copy of the Daily Prophet she’d snagged on her way through the Alley was any indication.

June 13th, 1979. It’s a bit earlier than she intended, given that she’d hoped to arrive closer to when Lily and James Potter had gone into hiding — _change the secret keeper, and things will work out differently for Harry —_ but since she had a habit of turning up early, she has now rather overshot the runway and ended up in a time before.

The height of the first war loomed.

And Hermione Granger was on a mission.

* * *

Gold solves most problems, or, at least, it _would,_ if Regulus is in any way capable of using gold to solve this one.

Unfortunately, “I tied my life and future to a Dark Lord who didn’t know the first thing about the Dark magic he’s dabbling in,” is not something one can buy oneself and one’s loved ones out of, especially when he knows his parents won’t _want_ to be bought out of this.

They likely wouldn’t believe in Kreacher’s word about the horcruxes either.

Which...is why he is currently sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, hoping against hope that Sirius will show up so he could say _something_ , literally _anything_ before he takes a suicidal mission to destroy the horcrux and know he did his part, however small.

But it’s been half an hour now, past the time that Sirius was supposed to get here, and still no hide or hair of his errant older brother.

He sits there, stirring his slowly cooling coffee, and wonders when he got used to this sort of disappointment.

It certainly hadn’t happened before Sirius sorted into Gryffindor and ended up on the opposite side of every disagreement.

But for a long time afterwards, even though the disappointment was a done thing, he hadn’t expected it.

Then again, what could he have expected of Sirius at this juncture anyway?

One final shouting match before he meets his death?

Maybe it’d be better not tarnish Sirius’s memory of him like this.

There’s someone entering the Leaky Cauldron, prompting him to look up, just in case it’s Sirius, but it’s _not._

It’s a witch he’s never seen before, except that couldn’t be right — she’s only a year or so older than him at most, and he knows everyone who went to Hogwarts in his age bracket —

“Hermione Granger.”

Yes, that _is_ a proper British accent.

Granger…

Granger.

A mu—

A muggleborn.

She’s alone, and this is too public for this sort of thing.

“Ah, Granger,” he rises. “So nice of you to finally show.”

She turns to him, a face full of outrage, but he grabs her shoulder and disapparates.

* * *

Being grabbed and then disapparated not two minutes after entering the Leaky Cauldron by a person she didn’t recognize was not on the to do list.

“Who the bloody hell are you?” she hissed, when they finally stop, in some room littered in green and silver, which makes hair rise on the nape of her neck, her wand tip at his throat.

“Regulus Black, and I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He still managed to look down his nose at her, even through the threat of being stunned at close range. “You’re in the Black Manor. My parents are just downstairs.”

Sirius’s dead — no, not dead, clearly still _alive_ — younger brother. They’re at Number 12 Grimmauld Place then.

“What do you want from me?” He’d called her ‘Granger’ with that same snooty tone Malfoy always used. She is some nineteen years and a few months into the past, before the date of her _birth_ , _no one_ should know what she’s called, much less recognize her.

“For you to stop threatening me in my own room.”

She _could_ relent, but Number 12 Grimmauld Place didn’t bring back the greatest of memories, and Number 12 Grimmauld Place over nineteen years in the past doesn’t fill her with _any_ confidence for her survival.

And she had to survive.

“How do you know my name?”

* * *

So it does seem that Granger has some shred of self preservation. He just wishes that the self preservation didn’t lead to her holding a wand to his throat in his own bedroom. “You used it when talking to the bartender.”

Her face goes through several emotions too quickly and briefly for him to really name them, but outrage featured heavily in all of them anyway.

“Why did you kidnap me.”

These aren’t questions, really. They’re more like demands.

If he’d known she’d be so troublesome, well, he’d still have done it.

Probably.

He’s going to be dead and gone by this time tomorrow anyway. If she didn’t show up today, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

“I didn’t kidnap you.” She’s perfectly capable of leaving.

Well, as soon as he makes sure she doesn’t get herself killed as soon as she leaves. Ironically, she’s probably safer here, as a muggleborn than the Leaky Cauldron where she might get jumped. “Where did you come from?”

“That’s not your business.” Her wand is still at his throat, but it’s wavering.

“Look,” he swallows and tries not to wonder about everything. “I know everyone who graduated Hogwarts in my year, and two years above me and two years below me, and you’re not in _any_ of those lists. There’s much worse than me who would know this.”

She flips from outrage to something more like apprehension.

Their society is small enough that anyone new is someone of note, and he can only hope that he got them out of the Leaky Cauldron fast enough that no one questioned it.

Who is he kidding? Someone _has_ to have noticed.

He’s not an outgoing person.

“Just,” he runs a hand through his hair, and tries to think about what to do now. He’s going to be _dead_ by this time tomorrow, he had everything planned out, but someone with less than twenty-four hours to live has no business dealing with something like this. “Be careful out there. I’ll have Kreacher see you out so my parents don’t discover you—”

“You’re Regulus Black,” she says, slowly, as if piecing something together, wand _finally_ lowered. “And it’s June.”

“Yes.” He attempts continuing. “I won’t really be around to—”

“I have to come with you.” The intensity shocks him. It’s as if she knew what he was going to say. “You don’t know this, but there’s more than one.”

More than one…

More than one.

Good God.

* * *

The river changes its course.

Time moves forward.

* * *

“It is June.

I am tired of being brave.”

— Anne Sexton, “The Truth The Dead Know”

**Author's Note:**

> There's definitely potential for more to happen here, but I kind of assume that Regulus lives, and that he and Hermione end up going Horcrux hunting together and maybe get Sirius on board with the whole plan. 
> 
> I had such fun writing and thinking about this idea! <3


End file.
